Thursday, September 30, 2010

White House Gardens Week #16, September 30, 2010

Sometimes I think the only reason I grow all these vegetables, is so I can share recipes with you.  There were so many choices this week from my many saved recipes, that I had to make a decision about what to leave out!  Stewed peppers, collard greens cooked with bacon, (use the leaf beet if you didn’t get collards), Butternut Squash Gallette, refried beans. Like I have said before, this is my favorite time of year.  I love the crops that are coming in now: kale, collard greens, kohlrabi, broccoli, cauliflower, beets, winter squash; the list goes on and on. 

Thank you Denny and Nancy Archey for helping again this evening.  They love to pick peppers!  The peppers are overflowing this year.  I planted quite a lot  because previous years have been very lean in producing colored peppers, which are actually ripe peppers.  Green peppers are not ripe!  This year was a bumper crop, due to the hot weather.  Colored peppers contain lycopene , an antioxidant that protects against cancer like blueberries, tomatoes, and other brightly colored vegetables.  Enjoy them raw, cut them up and freeze them to use in cooked preparations this winter, make soup (next week’s newsletter), stuff them, fry them, roast them, or make  Stewed Peppers from Recipes For Health by Martha Rose Shulman.   I have referred you to her column in the New York Times many times.  She has published a cookbook, The Very Best Of Recipes for Health: 250 Recipes and More from the Popular Feature on NYTimes.com, based on this column, and I definitely believe it is worth purchasing.  I plan on making the Stewed Peppers and serving it over polenta.  Yes, I am overloading you with peppers, but they contain just as much if not more Vitamin C than oranges, so eat them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! 

Kohlrabi  White or red in your share.  Can be eaten raw or cooked.  Peel before eating.  My brother-in-law loves to grill thick slices of kohlrabi!  The greens are also edible, raw or lightly sauted.
Beets  Not in all shares.  If you didn’t get beets, then you got Leaf Beet (see below) Chioggia or Red Ace.  Best served roasted: cut off tops and wrap roots in foil.  Bake at 400 degrees for 30-60 minutes, depending on the size, until tender.  When cool enough to handle, peel skin, slice, and toss with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt & pepper.  Saute the greens in olive oil and add to the roasted roots for a complete salad. 
 
Shell Beans  Tongue of Fire.  You are probably tired of shelling beans, and this is the last of them, I promise.  Store in the frig in the shell but shell them as soon as possible.  (Do it in front of the TV!)  Store shelled beans in the frig or cook them and store them in the freezer for use this winter in soups.  DON’T EAT THEM RAW!  Some fresh beans (cannellini, kidney, broad beans) contain a natural toxin that will make you very sick if not cooked first.  To cook the beans for freezing:  rinse the beans to remove any debris/dirt from shelling them, put in a heavy pot, cover with water by about 2 inches, add aromatics like garlic, rosemary, thyme, or sage, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 30-60 minutes, until tender, but not mushy.  Add more liquid if necessary during the cooking process.  Remove from the heat and add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, and salt to taste.  Let the beans cool.  They should be saucy, not dry.  Store in the freezer and use in recipes that call for dried beans, but guess what?, you have beans already cooked in the freezer, ready to use!  Also see this recipe   from Dad Cooks Dinner.
 
Sweet Peppers  Yellow and red block peppers.  Also green cubanelles.  See above for tips on using sweet peppers.  Cubanelles are sweet, but can be a little spicey sometimes.  It depends on the particular pepper!  Use them raw, stuffed, roasted whole. 
 
Radishes  Cherry Belle
 
Heirloom Tomatoes  Brandywine, Goldie, Pruden’s Purple and/or Yellow Brandywine.  May be the last, we’ll see if the weather holds out.  The heirloom tomatoes actually held up better than the hybrids against the many blights that tomatoes are susceptible to. 
Leaf Beet  Related to beets and Swiss chard.  Can be used like spinach in any recipe.  Also called Gator, Perpetual Spinach.  Enjoy raw or lightly sauted in olive oil with garlic, salt & pepper. 
Collard Greens  Only in large shares.  Usually tough and long cooking, these collard greens are young and tender.  Remove the stems before preparing.  See a recipe for Collard Greens and Bacon in the newsletter.
 
Butternut Squash  This year’s winter squash crop is very minimal.  I have a terrible problem with squash bugs (stink bugs) that eat the young seedlings and the mature fruit!  See the newsletter for recipes for Winter Squash Soup and Butternut Squash Gallette. 
Thyme and Sage 

 Collard Greens with Red Onions and Bacon Gourmet | December 1995
Yield: Serves 8


1/2 pound sliced bacon, cut crosswise into fourths

3 medium red onions, chopped coarse (about 3 cups)
1 1/4 cups chicken broth
1/4 cup cider vinegar
2 tablespoons firmly packed dark brown sugar, or to taste
1/2 teaspoon dried hot red pepper flakes, or to taste
4 pounds collard greens (preferably small leaves), coarse stems and ribs discarded and leaves and thin stems washed well, drained, and chopped coarse


In a deep heavy kettle cook bacon in 2 batches over moderate heat until crisp and transfer to paper towels to drain. Pour off all but about 3 tablespoons drippings and in drippings remaining in kettle cook onions, stirring occasionally, until browned slightly and softened. Transfer onions with a slotted spoon to a bowl.
To kettle add broth, vinegar, brown sugar, red pepper flakes, and about half of bacon, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Add about half of collards, tossing until wilted slightly, and add remaining collards, tossing until combined. Simmer collards, covered, 30 minutes. Stir in onions and simmer, covered, 30 minutes more, or until collards are very tender.
Serve collards topped with remaining bacon.

Butternut Squash and Caramelized Onion Galette
For the pastry:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into
pieces
1/4 cup sour cream
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup ice water
For the filling:
1 small butternut squash (about one pound)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 to 2 tablespoons butter (if you have only non-stick, the smaller amount will do)
1 large onion, halved and thinly sliced in half-moons
1 teaspoon salt
Pinch of sugar
1/4 teaspoon cayenne, or to taste
3/4 cup fontina cheese (about 2 1/2 ounces), grated or cut into small bits
1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh sage leaves
1. Make pastry: In a bowl, combine the flour and salt. Place the butter in another bowl. Place both bowls in the freezer for 1 hour. Remove the bowls from the freezer and make a well in the center of the flour. Add the butter to the well and, using a pastry blender, cut it in until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Make another well in the center. In a small bowl, whisk together the sour cream, lemon juice and water and add half of this mixture to the well. With your fingertips, mix in the liquid until large lumps form. Remove the large lumps and repeat with the remaining liquid and flour-butter mixture. Pat the lumps into a ball; do not overwork the dough. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.
2. Prepare squash: Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Peel squash, then halve and scoop out seeds. Cut into a 1/2-inch dice. Toss pieces with olive oil and a half-teaspoon of the salt and roast on foil lined (for neatness sake) sheet for 30 minutes or until pieces are tender, turning it midway if your oven bakes unevenly. Set aside to cool slightly.
3. Caramelize onions: While squash is roasting, melt butter in a heavy skillet and cook onion over low heat with the remaining half-teaspoon of salt and pinch of sugar, stirring occasionally, until soft and lightly golden brown, about 20 minutes. Stir in cayenne.
4. Raise the oven temperature to 400 degrees. Mix squash, caramelized onions, cheese and herbs together in a bowl.
5. Assemble galette: On a floured work surface, roll the dough out into a 12-inch round. Transfer to an ungreased baking sheet. Spread squash, onions, cheese and herb mixture over the dough, leaving a 1 1/2-inch border. Fold the border over the squash, onion and cheese mixture, pleating the edge to make it fit. The center will be open.
6. Bake until golden brown, 30 to 40 minutes. Remove from the oven, let stand for 5 minutes, then slide the galette onto a serving plate. Cut into wedges and serve hot, warm or at room temperature. Serves 6.

Winter Squash Soup with Gruyere Croutons  

You might not have enough squash for the entire recipe.  Cut ingredients in half or use all butternut instead of both squashes.   
Serves 8
Soup
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
1 large onion, finely chopped
4 large garlic cloves, chopped
3 14 1/2-ounce cans low-salt chicken broth
4 cups 1-inch pieces peeled butternut squash (about 1 1/2 pounds)*
4 cups 1-inch pieces peeled acorn squash (about 1 1/2 pounds)*
1 1/4 teaspoons minced fresh thyme
1 1/4 teaspoons minced fresh sage
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 cup whipping cream
Croutons
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter
24 1/4-inch-thick baguette bread slices
1 cup grated Gruyere cheese
1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme
1 teaspoon minced fresh sage
For soup: Melt butter in large pot over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and sauté until tender, about 10 minutes. Add broth, all squash and herbs; bring to boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until squash is very tender, about 20 minutes.
Working in batches, puree soup in blender. Return soup to same pot. Stir in cream and sugar; bring to simmer. Season with salt and pepper. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Chill. Rewarm over medium heat before serving.)
For croutons: Preheat broiler. Butter 1 side of each bread slice. Arrange bread, buttered side up, on baking sheet. Broil until golden, about 1 minute. Turn over. Sprinkle cheese, then thyme and sage over. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Broil until cheese melts, about 1 minute. Ladle soup into bowls. Top each with croutons and serve.
* If you are not confident in your knife skills or lack a very very sharp one, I’d suggest roasting the squash, halved and seeded, on a baking sheet coated lightly with oil at 425 until soft, scooping it into the pot, and cooking it the rest of the way there. Peeling, seeding and chopping raw squash is not the easiest endeavor. Alternatively, you could buy butternut squash already peeled and chopped in many stores. Haven’t seen acorn yet.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

White House Gardens Week #15, September 23, 2010

Week #15    September 23, 2010

Your shares this week contain the end of the summer crops and the beginning of the fall crops.  The tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant are just about done, and the cool season crops are just beginning to produce.  There are 5 weeks left in the farmshare, which is my favorite time of year.  It has been very dry, not much rain and the temperatures are still in the 80’s.  All the lettuce has been planted, and the spinach is beginning to show signs of life.  Less than half of it germinated, but I think we will have a little in a few weeks.  I will need to keep the deer away from it by covering with row cover, or there will be nothing for us!  Right now they have plenty to eat, but that won’t be the case are a frost.  I have enjoyed having some of you to share the harvest with.  Thank you to Rob Bowser and Kate Raymond for helping pack the boxes tonight.   Rob and Kate shared several ideas with me about how they have been using the vegetables in their share.  I encouraged them to send me their ideas so I can share them with you. 

Tomatoes  Roma or San Marzano tomatoes.  Good for making tomato sauce.  See a previous newsletter for a recipe for Marinara Sauce.  When you cut into these tomatoes, the top portion may not be ripe.  This is actually an environmental condition, caused by fluctuations in temperature and moisture.  This part can be cut away and the rest of the tomato is usable. 
 
Onions  Can be stored in or out of the refrigerator.
 
Potatoes  There are still 5 rows of potatoes to dig, so there will be many more to enjoy.  This week’s variety is called All Blue or Russian Blue.  It keeps it’s blue color when cooked and stores well.  Don’t refrigerate potatoes, as they lose their taste when chilled.  These are very small, so enjoy them steamed and tossed with butter and herbs, or cut up and fried.
Shell Beans  Cannellini beans in large shares, Tongue of Fire in small shares.  To enjoy the beans at their best, shell them as soon as possible.  This is best done in front of the TV!  Use them just like dried beans in any of your favorite recipes, minus the long soaking.  If you can’t cook them right away, the shelled beans can be kept refrigerated for a few days, or freeze them to use later.  Don’t store them unrefrigerated as they may not be dry enough and could mold.  See last week’s newsletter for recipes.  Please do not eat any beans before they are cooked.  I learned this the hard way!  In the garden I occasionally snack on different varieties to see if they are ready to be picked.  I ate some shell beans and that evening and the following day was not feeling very well.  Turns out white beans (cannellini), red kidney beans  and broad beans (limas) have a natural toxin in them that is only removed by thoroughly cooking them .  I found this out through a cooking blog I read regularly,  Dad Cooks Dinner, the very next day!   So DO NOT EAT THE BEANS RAW!

Peppers  Red, sweet peppers called Carmen and yellow Hungarian Hot Wax.  Peppers are easy to preserve if you find you have too many of them.  Cut into dice or cubes (whatever size you want to use them) and store in the freezer in a zip lock bag.  They can be added to fried potatoes, or any dish requiring fresh peppers that are meant to be cooked. 
Eggplant  Recipe for Baba Ganoush in the newsletter courtesy of shareholder Pat Brannon.
Swiss Chard  From the same family as beets, chard can be used in place of any “green” in a recipe.  See a previous newsletter for Sauted Chard with cream and prosciutto.  The stems and the leaves are edible.
Kale  Winterbor is among many varieties of kale.  This one has curly leaves. 

I love hummus, so when I found eggplant in this week share I thought “baba ganoush” - an eggplant dip similar to hummus. I like this variation which combines these two middle-eastern favorites (CookEatShare.com).  Serve with pita or bagel chips. I make my own with day old bagels from Bruegger’s - slice them into rounds and toast lightly in a low oven.  Pat Brannon
 

  Eggplant Hummus with Roasted Garlic
1 large eggplant
1/2 cup garbanzo beans
 4 garlic cloves skins on
 1/4 cup extra virgin first cold pressed olive oil
 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
 3 tablespoons of tahini (sesame paste)
1 teaspoon coarse salt
 1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder
 Garnish with paprika and parsley
 Roast both garlic and eggplant in a 425* oven on a baking pan (rub with 2 tablespoons of oil) for 20 minutes.

 Remove garlic from pan set aside. Continue to roast eggplant until soft and flat about 25 more minutes. Cool.

Slice eggplant in half and scrape flesh into the bowl of a food processor. Add garbanzo beans. Peel garlic and add to processor bowl, along with juice and tahini, salt and 2 tablespoons oil. Process till smooth.

To serve, drizzle with more oil and paprika on top. Serve with pita chips or bread, celery, carrot sticks or buttery crackers.


 The following is a recipe using the kale and beans from your share.  Any type of kale can be used along with any type of beans.  There is no need to soak the beans before cooking them, as the beans in your share are fresh. 


Sauteed Tuscan Kale with Garlicky White Beans

Sunday, September 19, 2010

White House Gardens Week #14, September 16, 2010

Week #14    September 16, 2010

Thanks to helpers Michelle Krocker, Nancy & Denny Archey, and my niece, Sarah Fulton, we got your boxes packed by 8:00 pm again this evening.  Thank you, helpers. There is at least one hour less of daylight now, so we have to move fast to get everything picked before the sun goes down.  I enjoy growing at this time of year the most, when the days and nights are cooler, the weed pressure is less, and the crops grow slower.  Most things that go in your boxes are weighed or counted, so I know how to divide the harvest evenly.  When things need to be bunched or bagged, we count out the bags or rubber bands beforehand so there are no mistakes.  When things are weighed, such as the arugula, we then divide the weight by the number of shares, AND count out the bags, and then fill them.  My math was a little off this evening, so we had to re-bag the arugula to make 35 shares.  I know I keep saying this, but this may be the last time there are tomatoes in your share, other than romas and/or heirlooms.  Hopefully, we will get some much needed rain this week. 

Tongue of Fire Shell Beans  Only in large shares this week.  There are many more to be picked, so we will have them again, at least for the next couple of weeks.  Shell beans are like dried beans, but they don’t need to be soaked before cooking them.  The pods can be stored in the refrigerator temporarily , but they should be shelled as soon as possible.  If you can’t cook them right away, they can be frozen after they are shelled and cooked when you have more time.  A simple way to cook them is to sauté some chopped onions, carrots, celery and garlic in olive oil.  Add the shelled beans with enough water to cover and simmer gently for about 30-40 minutes.   Add more water if necessary so that the beans don’t go dry.  Taste for doneness after about 30 minutes.  Here is a link  on  How to Cook Shell Beans for more information on cooking fresh shell beans.  Many of the pods that are in your share are a little drier than I would have liked, but they will still cook quicker than dried beans.  Use in place of dried beans in your favorite recipe.  Included in the newsletter is a recipe for a shell bean salad.  See   Recipes for Health for more shell bean recipes.

Radishes  French breakfast variety. 
 
Pac Choi  This is an Asian vegetable, in the same family as cabbage, broccoli, etc.  It can be steamed, sauted, or used in stir fries.  Both the stems and the leaves are edible.  When stir frying, it’s best to cut the leaves from the thick stem, slice the stems into ½” pieces and add them before the leaves, as the stems take longer to cook.  Here is a recipe from shareholder Pat Brannon for a coleslaw made with pac choi.

I tend to improvise in the kitchen---I sliced the bok choy bulb into julienne size pieces. To that I added some chopped Vidalia, and a can of halved Mandarin oranges, a handful of broken walnut meats, and a scattering of Gorgonzola cheese. For the dressing I added a minced garlic clove mashed with a dash of Dijon mustard, than blended in white wine vinegar and olive oil, salt and pepper. The result was a refreshing, crisp fruity slaw. Next time I will try with diced apple and a creamier sweet dressing – maybe with mayo and honey.

Tomatoes  The last of the slicing tomatoes.  Yellow or red Brandywine, or Goldie, another heirloom
 
Arugula  Has a peppery taste.  Use in place of lettuce, or mix with other greens in a salad. 
 
Sweet Peppers  Carmen (long, red), red block peppers, and Amish Pimento and/or Topepo.  These last two are the short, squat red peppers, very sweet.
 
Hot Peppers  Jalapeno, Serrano, Czech Black, Hungarian Carrot, and Cayenne.  The hot peppers are in a paper bag.


Shell Bean Salad With Tomatoes, Celery and Feta
By MARTHA ROSE SHULMAN

This is a perfect end-of-summer farmers' market dish. It makes a nutritious main salad or a great starter or side dish.
For the salad:
1 1/2 pounds shell beans (about 2 1/3 cups shelled)
1 onion, halved
7 cups water
3 large garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
A bouquet garni made with a few sprigs each of parsley and thyme, a sprig of sage and a bay leaf
Salt to taste
1 cup sliced or diced celery
1 pound tomatoes, cut in wedges, the wedges cut in half crosswise, or cut in large dice
1/2 cup crumbled feta (2 ounces)
1/2 cup chopped fresh herbs, such as parsley, basil, chives, tarragon, mint
For the dressing:
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1 garlic clove, minced or pureed
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1. Combine the beans, onion, water, crushed garlic, bouquet garni and salt in a heavy saucepan or soup pot, and bring to a simmer. Cover and simmer 45 minutes, or until the beans are tender. Taste and adjust salt. Remove and discard the onion, the bouquet garni and the garlic cloves. Drain though a strainer or colander set over a bowl.
2. In a large salad bowl, combine the beans, celery, tomatoes, feta and herbs. Sprinkle the tomatoes with sea salt if desired.
3. Mix together the vinegar, mustard, salt, pepper, garlic and olive oil. Toss with the salad, taste and adjust seasonings, and serve.
Variations: You can serve this salad warm or cold. Heat the beans if they've cooled off, then toss with the other ingredients. You can also add some of the liquid from the beans if you want more marinade for the mixture (though the tomatoes will become juicy).
Tuna, Bean and Tomato Salad: Add a drained can of tuna to the mix.
Yield: Serves 6 to 8.

Advance preparation: You can cook the beans up to three days in advance. The salad will hold for a few hours. Tomatoes will continue to release juice, but this just makes everything taste even better.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Shell Bean Salad with Tomatoes, Celery and Feta


Here are my freshly shelled beans from this week's box.  I made the recipe in the newsletter, Shell Bean Salad with Tomatoes, Celery and Feta.  




Beans in the pot with herbs, garlic and onion

I really liked it.  Nice contrast of flavors.  It's a keeper!

White House Gardens Week #13, September 9, 2010

Once again, we finished packing your boxes early, thanks to helpers Pam & Paul Thielo, Mary Fulton, and Albina Schapel.  We even got an extra vegetable in your share: potatoes that were already dug (today), but take extra time to weigh and bag.  Thank you, helpers, very much.  I thoroughly enjoyed having you help me Thursday evening. 

Which brings me to something I have been thinking about this year.  Many CSA’s require their members to participate in the planting and harvesting at sometime during the season.  When the CSA concept was first established in Japan, shareholders formed a group, sought out a farmer, acquired the land, decided what they wanted to grow, and organized the distribution of the vegetables.  That is how the concept was first introduced in this country by Robin Van Eyn.  It has evolved since the early  eighties into more of a marketing tool where the farmer does most or all of the work. 

Next year I am going to offer “working shares”; each shareholder will be required to work a few hours during the season.  There will be a schedule for the entire season and everyone will be required to work a shift or two, probably consisting of 3-4 hours per season.  Several of you have already volunteered your time, and I am very grateful for your help.   Working shares will help to keep the cost down as I won’t have to hire as much outside help.  There will be more on this later.  I will also be sending out sign up information for next year in a few weeks. 


The fall crops are coming along nicely.  There is less weed pressure this time of year, and everything looks very fresh and green.  The spinach is coming up very slowly.  The soil may have been too warm last week for it to germinate.  The tomatoes may be at their end, not too many good ones left on the vines.  The heirlooms are still looking good, so we will have a few of them for a couple of weeks. I have been disappointed in the paste tomatoes this year.  They look like they are ripe, but inside they still look unripe.  If anyone has received any that they are unhappy with, please let me know.  This variety is one I have never grown before and I have trouble telling when they are ripe. 

Tomatoes  One quart of hybrids and a couple of red, yellow, or orange heirlooms.  Yes, the heirlooms are ugly and much of it needs to be cut away sometimes, but their flavor is usually superior to hybrid tomatoes.  But this year, I think all the tomatoes are a little watery and somewhat tasteless. 

Sweet Peppers  Long, Italian frying peppers called Carmen, yellow Flavorburst, and/or red block peppers.  Carmen is very sweet when red, I love this pepper.  It produces very well in our short summers.  All the peppers are doing very well this year due to the warm weather.  Red peppers are fully ripe green peppers.

Eggplant  Recipe included in the newsletter
Lettuce  Romaine type
Onions  Yellow
Carrots
Potatoes  Kennebec variety.  According to the seed catalog, these are the best for making French fries.

Below is a recipe for stewed tomatoes with eggplant.  My sister has made this and it is very good.  She made a few changes:  doubled the butter, added garlic just as the onions were finishing cooking, and added a splash of white balsamic vinegar at the end.  I personally don’t think it’s necessary to purge the eggplant of water with the salt soak when the eggplant you have is so fresh.  That step is usually necessary when the eggplant is old and bitter.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

White House Gardens Week #12, September 2, 2010

Usually, when I begin this newsletter, it is 10:00 pm and we have just finished packing your boxes.  Tonight we were done an hour early, mostly due to the fact that shareholder Rob Bowser came again to help.  This is his second evening helping to pick and pack, and I am very grateful that he decided to join my niece, Sarah and I.  He has been a great help.  Thank you, Rob.  There was a lot of weighing and bagging tonight which can take a lot of time.  He made the bagging of the potatoes a snap by using an algebra equation to figure out how much to weigh for each share.  It’s been a long time since I made use of algebra.  That brought back a lot of memories of high school algebra class!  I guess it really was good for something.

I have been watering the crops nonstop this week.  I use drip tape in the rows, and can water about 10 rows at a time.  On Sunday, Bradley Cramer and I planted the spinach for the fall.  Please say a prayer that it will germinate.  Spinach doesn’t like to sprout in hot weather.  My method for improving the germination is to soak the seed overnight, then refrigerate it until it just begins to sprout.  Then we planted 3, 150’ rows by hand, laid out the drip tape and soaked the rows with cold water.  Lastly, we covered the bed with floating row cover, which keeps the wind from drying the soil and provides a small amount of shade.  I have been irrigating this bed every other day since Sunday during the hottest week of the year!  But it was now or never to get the spinach planted so that we can enjoy it this fall.  Because of cooler (ha!) and shorter days, the fall crops can take up to two weeks longer than usual to mature.  This year just might be the exception to that rule. 

Tomatoes  This week it’s tomato palooza!  Cherry, slicing, paste, and heirloom tomatoes are in your share.  Try roasting them (see Week #11 newsletter), make  tomato sauce, stewed tomatoes (can’t find a good recipe, anybody have one?), marinara sauce (recipe included in the newsletter).  Also, don’t forget about the Mother Ship Tomato Salad in a previous newsletter.
 
Lettuce  Romaine type, may be a little bitter due to the heat.
 
Potatoes  Yukon Gold.  There are still several rows of potatoes to dig.  They have been fabulous this year, must have been the rain earlier this summer.
 
Delicata Squash  This is the first of the winter squashes.  Shaped like an acorn squash, it can be baked, roasted, or steamed and the skin is edible, unlike butternut squash.  The squash bugs severely damaged the crop this year, and I will probably have to buy some squash to supplement the crop from another grower who doesn’t have squash bug problems!  Cut the squash in half and bake, cut side down, at 350 degrees with a little water in the bottom until tender, about an hour.  Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with brown sugar.  Broil until the sugar is carmelized and brown.  Or cut into chunks and roast alone or with other vegetables, such as potatoes, carrots, and onions, peppers that are tossed with olive oil, salt and pepper. 
 
Beets  Chioggia or candy stripped beets.  The best way to cook beets is to bake them, wrapped in foil, at 400 degrees for about an hour depending on their size.  I like to eat them warm from the oven with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. 
 
Leef Beet  Not in all shares. Also known as Gator, is a member of the beet/chard family.  It can be used just like spinach, either fresh or sauted with olive oil and garlic and the stems are edible.
 
Romano Beans  Only in the small shares this week


Marinara Sauce
From Lidia’s Italian American Kitchen by Lidia Bastianich
¼ cup olive oil
8 cloves garlic, peeled
3 pounds ripe fresh plum tomatoes, peeled and seeded or one 35 oz. can peeled Italian plum tomatoes, seeded and lightly crushed, with their liquid.
Salt
Crushed hot red pepper
10 fresh basil leaves, torn into small pieces
Makes about 1 quart, enough to dress 6 servings of pasta

Heat the oil in a 2 to 3 quart nonreactive saucepan over medium heat.  Whack the garlic with the flat side of a knife, add it to the oil, and cook until lightly browned, about 2 minutes.
Carefully slide the tomatoes and their liquid into the oil.  Bring to a boil and season lightly with salt and crushed red pepper.  Lower the heat so the sauce is at a lively simmer and cook, breaking up the tomatoes with a whisk or spoon, until the sauce is chunky and thick, about 20 minutes.  Stir in the basil about 5 minutes before the sauce is finished.  Taste the sauce and season with salt and red pepper if necessary. 
 
How to Peel Tomatoes:
Bring a large pot of water to a boil and set a bowl of ice water near the stove.  Cut the cores out of the tomatoes and cut a small x in the opposite end.  Slip a few tomatoes into the boiling water and cook just until the skin loosens, 1 to 2 minutes depending on the tomatoes.  (Overcooking will make them soggy.)  Fish the tomatoes out of the water with a wire skimmer or slotted spoon and drop them into the ice water.  If necessary, let the water return to the boil and repeat with any remaining tomatoes.  Slip the skins off the blanched tomatoes and cut the tomatoes in half – lengthwise for plum tomatoes, crosswise for round tomatoes.  Gently squeeze out the seeds with your hands.